A fall snowstorm with light snow can take out an astonishing number of trees.
On October 29 , 2011 , the Mid - Atlantic and Northeast U.S. were wring by a Halloween blizzard that no one took seriously until they woke up to snowstorm conditions on Saturday . tree diagram damagefrom the coke was astonishing – from Pennsylvania to Maine , tree diagram limb crash on power lines , taking out monolithic portions of local power grid . When the blow end , every neighborhood in the storm ’s track lost trees , and nearly 3 million family were without electricity .
Northeast Pennsylvania never saw significant snow in October – in fact , this tempest was our heaviest October snowfallEVER – seven inches . The amount of snow was n’t more than a distinctive wintertime storm – from 1 inch in the suburban area of Philadelphia to 26 inches in Massachusetts . But the damage to trees was devastating – more extreme than evenHurricane Irenein September . Only three inches of Charles Percy Snow fell in New York City ’s Central Park , but nearlyone thousandtrees were damaged or destroyed .
What makes a fall snowstorm so destructive to trees?
The simple answer is leave and fond temperatures . When snow decrease in winter , much of it safely passes through a deciduous tree . The tree diagram has drop down its leaves because it ’s entered a winter sleeping catamenia , which starts in late autumn . For the most part , a tree diagram rides out the full winter , storm after violent storm , integral .
When a snowstorm arrives in October with temperatures hovering around 32 degrees ( as our tempest in 2011 did ) , the snow is heavy and pissed . Most deciduous Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree have only just begun todrop their autumn leavesat that time . The early C. P. Snow clings to the leaves , limb , and branches at the top of the tree diagram , which then move like a boat ’s canvass , catching the wind . This adds thousand of additional pounds of strain to the tree diagram .
The weight of the C force out limbs to accede towards the ground , exposing more branch orbit and more leave , which in crook collect more snow , total more weight . Decades - onetime , otherwise salubrious trees snap under the song . Just after the tempest in 2011 , I saw a tree that looked like it had exploded – the tree was break open in half as if a giant star had chop it with an ax straight down the vertical center . All that remain was a three - ft jag stump with the limbs , upper trunk , and outgrowth splayed out from the center .
When a snowstorm comes in fall, remove heavy fall snow from your tree as soon as possible to minimize damage
unluckily , there ’s not much you may do to prepare your tree diagram for an former storm apart fromobserving good pruning practices . But what you do after the storm ’s harm is incurred is significant .
Tips to minimize tree damage after a fall snowstorm
Remove the snow with a broom as best you can
get hold of as high as you could , move in an upward motility so you do n’t put more tension on limbs . If a tree branch is mob with ice , let nature take its course and wait for the ice to fade . Trying to remove ice may do more harm to the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree .
For arborvitae, restore its shape as quickly as possible
Some arborvitae branches may be bent out from the shrub . To get the works ’s form back , carefully remove any snow , freeing the branch and gently raise it up . You may have to tie the bent branch to the main stem to get them to grow back right . Use soft cotton plant clothesline and leave it in place well into bound . tie the arborvitae plant together like this can be a good preventative before wintertime arrives .
If a small tree has bowed over but is not broken or split, stake it to save it.
Use two stakes about eight inches away from the trunk . Be careful not to damage or sever the roots when you ram the stake into the dry land . link up the trunk of the tree to the stakes at the lowest point , which will stabilize the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in an upright position . When the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree is able to stand on its own again , remove the post . The tree will usually stabilize during the first maturate season after the damage occurred .
